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This immigrant wanted Americans to talk openly about politics. So he made a space for it.

When Busboys and Poets first opened in Washington , D.C ., in 2005, restaurant-goers had no idea how much the establishment would shape the city.

All photos politenes of Busboys and Poets unless noted otherwise.

Home to a bookstore filled with literature from novelists of color alongside Middle Eastern and soul food, this restaurant-bookstore-spoken-word-activist-safe space-cafe hybrid is anything but ordinary. And for D.C. residents, it altogether works .

“I suppose food and eating and violating bread … is a sacred human experience at some level, ” tells restaurant owner Anas “Andy” Shallal. “You know, people merely want to set something into their body. There’s some spirituality in that. I think many cultures in the world watch food as something more than just nutrients for the body. And I think that’s the suit in D.C. too.”

A beacon of activism and politics, Busboys and Poets has hosted numerous readings, events, and speaking engagements .

The events have been hosted by powerhouse figures like Angela Davis, Common, Danny Glover, Ellen Page, and one of Shallal’s personal favorite guests, Barack Obama.

“When[ Obama] came, it was pretty much that moment that I think took my and most people’s breath away, which was really various kinds of weird because I’m not that easily starstruck, ” Shallal says. “But someone like him with all his spirit coming into the space? The place ran crazy. I entail, people devoted him a standing ovation that lasted I don’t even know how long, but there was a sense of awe, that sense of reverence to him, which was really quite amazing.”

The inception of Busboys and Poets began when Shallal was living and working in D.C. The Iraqi-American eatery owner immigrated to the U.S. with his family in the 1960 s. Ever a connoisseur of the arts and activism, Shallal felt at home in Washington , D.C ., the center of the U.S. federal government and the site of numerous movement beginnings and political processions.

While Shallal procured convenience in the nation’s capital, he was still unsatisfied with how little politics were discussed outside of activist circles.

“I’m an activist, ” he tells. “I’ve always been an activist, and[ I] always wanted to find a space that I would feel comfortable going to.”

Having come from a culture that espoused political debates instead of deflecting from them, Shallal detected America’s ambivalence to political dialogues disheartening. The eatery proprietor grew increasingly frustrated with Americans’ inability to talk about real issues in social settings.

“I remember when I first voted … I saw a person in front of me and said, ‘So, who are you going to vote for? ‘” he says. “And “its like” I just asked her the most personal intimate topic! She gave me that looking — ‘How dare you? ‘ Like, ‘that’s not what we do in America.’ And I supposed, ‘That’s odd. Shouldn’t you be public about who you voted for? ‘”

Shallal continued to face similar interactions whenever he’d try to discuss voting, politics, or other politically charged topics. An early public opponent of the Iraq War, Shallal was not one to shy away from the world’s most pressing issues.

So, how does an ambitious guy who’s spent his adult life reading the works of people like Zora Neale Hurston and Malcolm X get Americans to feel more comfortable talking about war, community policing, and women’s rights?

Through food, of course.

“I guess the food is the trick, ” Shallal says. “That’s how you catch fish. I guess once people are sitting together, they realize that they need to be able to have a conversation, and it’s not a bad thing and it doesn’t hurt. Somebody’s not going to bite you. And there’s a sense of, ‘OK, this can happen, this is possible.’ And I think that’s the beauty of it.”

Dishes like shrimp and chicken chorizo pasta and baba ganoush are amazing, but it’s the paints featuring black American heroes, political figures, intellectuals, and artists that define this place apart.

In each of the restaurant’s six locatings, patrons will find paints of people like Langston Hughes( the original busboy and poet ), Zora Neale Hurston, Martin Luther King Jr ., Rosa Parks, and Barack Obama.

In contrast to the bland stock photos lining the walls of many restaurants, Busboys and Poets explicitly aims to normalize images of black people by showcasing them in an artistic and humanizing light.

“We have to normalize this imagery, ” Shallal tells. “We have to think of this in terms of ‘America’ as opposed to ‘black America’ because I think we oftentimes think ‘white America’ is ‘America.’ In order for us to change that, you have to change the imagery and change the perception of what America is. You have to accept black culture in American culture just like white culture was accepted.”

Shallal’s dedication to black and immigrant art has been a permeating component in his career quests.

His ideology hasn’t run unnoticed by community members. In fact, it’s built him famous in activist circles around the nation. “I guess being a non-white person helps me understand the whole idea of justice and injustice a little differently, ” Shallal says .

In stark contrast to many eatery proprietors, Shallal places race and politics at the forefront of his restaurant’s mission rather than building it a topic to avoid at all costs. This is, in big portion, due his knowledge of the history of segregation in U.S. eateries and its perseverance in subtle, but problematic, ways.

“Having grown up in this country, I’ve insured the segregation that happens in eateries — at one point, legal segregation; and later, of course, is self-segregation, ” Shallal says. “I’ve always thought that’s not a healthy route for society to grow and find common ground.”

Shallal counters this pervasive narrative by recognizing the importance of not being colorblind to patrons, and he makes sure his personnel knows it too, telling, “There are very subtle messages[ in the food industry ], and if you were just being colorblind, you’re going to create tough situations.”

The commitment to bridging the gaps between culture, food, and history has made Busboys and Poets even more significant in today’s political volatility .

All Busboys and Poets places still host well-known speakers and also host open-mic nights for high school and college students.

Shallal, ever the activist, is increasingly well informed just how important the space is in such turbulent days. True to his nature, he welcomes hard conversations and hopes they help to move society forward in a positive way.

“I guess[ the current state of affairs is] truly unfortunate, and I think it’s truly putting a lot of stress on families and on relationships, ” he notes. “It’s just stupid and induces me really upset. But we’re still[ Busboys and Poets ], and people know where we stand and that’s not going to change.”

With six locatings, a seventh in the works, and ambitious will continue growing, Shallal has a lot on his hands. But social justice and helping to move advance forward goes first.

To do that, he tells, you just have to act: “I always firmly believed that I want to go at the heart of social justice and create a space that speaks to that issue — this is where I need to begin.”